Lost in La Mancha (2002)

Documentary of how when Terry Gilliam tried to make the movie based on the novel Don Quixote - has gone wrong in every way. I watched this ten years ago and it remained in my memory of what movie making means. How the actors and directors and everybody on the set must work in unison to make things go right... but sometimes, when everything seem to be going the wrong way, things just go wrong... wind against sails... they just go wrong. Very moving film making - documentary film making in a quick paced realistic informative way. Bravo to everybody.

La Petite Venise *** 2011

Zhao Tao (famous actress wife of famous director Zhao Zheng Ke) plays a soft iconic Chinese mom as Chinese immigrant (most likely illegal) works in a small cafe on a small venetian fishing island. She is hard working, intelligent, kind, self disciplined, and makes friends with a fisher man about to be retired. The film could be truly called realism - like the scene on Chinese clothing factory in Gomorrah. There is a quiet understanding of both sides, the Italians and the Chinese. I saw the small town outside of Florence, which is full of new Chinese immigrants. It is a contemporary reality and i am happy to see a movie made about immigrants. Too little has been said about immigrants. The first wave was in America during the gold rush era, and nobody makes much movies about this period and now we have the Italian / European wave, and with ongoing internet, we see some movies made. I am glad to have seen this quiet melancholic film. There is a realism concerning the soft Asian values of how life is lived. Taichi self meditative exercise, everyday, slogging in a job, water coming from the sea, but stuck in a lagoon, cannot go out anymore... all very quiet, struggles, along with the harsh reality; poetic floating candles lights - a festival in a shared bathroom in the bath tub next to men pissing, these rough mahjong playing tough guys... all realism oriented.Bravo!

There is Brigitte LaFontaine - so lively and holds the scene - in this movie and Poelvoorde so good - but really I think the director for some strange reason has wasted everybody's talent. It is one of the rare movie in which I recognize the talent of everybody but whats the point? Wasted. Poelvoorde in this homeless man get up, plays a fool with some humanity and Dupontel plays his brother who's gone bizurk from working at a suburban mall selling mattresses. Both brothers has LaFontaine as kookie mother who can't do anything normal... everything is absurd in this film. The suburban scenery is realistic and how ugly! In the shopping malls parking lot, is on display all these plastic play houses... (mostly by fisher toy); and a birthday cake with plastic electronic candle set, where with a gesture, you could put out the flames with a wave of the hand (electronic gadget sensors ) which i think looks ugly even in reality but here, all set up in one tight space... its a kind of mental landscape of absurdity to drive anyone sane to short circuit. The parents are owners of a giant size pataterie... potato eatery. Very strange movie, disgusting. And what a waste of everybody's talent. Why did the director make this movie? To show people how ugly our contemporary world has come to? The mother said, I don't know who your fathers were, I, I , I was too stoned... Both brothers talk at the same time to a father who doesn't listen but was concentrated on reading a manual for some electric gadget - they were sitting at the same table. So on so forth. Everything non sense or no common sense.

I certainly would not want to see it again. Even though I like the actor and actress very much.How do you judge a film which you don't want to see again because of its "trashy", wasted talent of everyone involved. The film is successful as criticism of our contemporary life of mediocrity of everyman... but so what?

The directors previous films are also set in this type of urban landscape, but there was a lot more humanity, humor and sympathy even for the unlikeable characters, but here, i just feel so much energy wasted in the way the subject has been treated.

Maybe it is trying to say to the world, forget about fancy Europe, the real Europe is like this! Mediocre, idiotic, full of slobs, and people disappointed with their real lives and are at the end of their ropes in trying to get out. Its a bankrupted society. This film does not blame immigrants for their slow sliding move downwards. Maybe its trying to say, take a good look! The set is very studied, graphically strikingly bright and peppy colors, and names of stores, shops, people, clothing all specially designed down to small details, definitely not a sloppy work. It is very controlled. Well made in every way.This is our world.

Sunday, 24 June 2012

Man in Black 3 ***halfVery stylized retro decor with many nice details, story is face paced, also w v gd interlocking details. Beautiful, entertaining, gd comic book in film. Intricate in every way. Great entertainment.

Bob Marly***Very moving documentary. A great man worthy of a sincere film - I just don't understand why the great often die young. Why must he get cancer from everywhere ? 36 is too young. What energy what a human being. I like all the people in the movie, they tell it with their own truths.

Moonrise Kingdom***Movie is set in the 60s - normally in this époque, boy scouts, parents who are lawyers in big houses - are all portrayed in very nice, ideal family life type of context with some adventure and feel good type of stories. But as usual, Wes Andersons stories are set in such a comfy context but things are not altogether turning right. Everyone has some kind of flaw, the boy scouts are mean conservative nasty kids - as kids go, yes, teenagers are nasty peer oriented. And the do good social service person is really doing very bad - worst thing can happen to a child is to be put into such an orphanage. The lawyers are normal couples with tired burnt out father and a mother with a need for an affair... everybody needs love. We don't know why the daughter is so strange, but we know the boy suffered from being orphan and in foster homes etc. Adults are not perfect, they fail in many ways - and could be tough and mean - all the while being courteous. Doors could be closed in a second without any second thought. Human kindness only goes so far.I like the complexity of the film and the colors and characters - and the fresh angles to the American live styles from this period of North American history.

Friday, 15 June 2012

Very interesting film w a v gd child actor.
Her speech is detached and true shocking teachers and adults.
Her surroundings are stuffy stiff smelly sets of old dead rules. But somehow this little girl simply directly in her own ways, without temper tantrums just got her own way little by little. The film ends with an older girl saying : that was when I was seven. The tone of the film is well paced, but some how amidst all these unpleasant adults you want to watch til the end.
I thought its a film about reality in England. But its more than that. :)

Prometheus ***I like the self dialed surgery machine, w metal tacks. All the rest, the gooey oozing black oil from urns, flitting ghost figures, waxed face super jock bodies, and weird mix of specialists in the ship are old comic books figures almost. 3D doesn't make this movie any better. Incubated cat fish embryo in the body... all so old and trite.

Monday, 4 June 2012

Robert Crumb by Terry Zwigoff**** (4 stars for unrelenting honesty thanks to the people in the film for sharing)

A bona fide documentary. All the human details, from Robert to his mother,his brothers, his art, his family,house, social surroundings, daughter, son, everybody is so human. Difficulties in living from day to day, the humor, the sex lives of the brothers, the rough and tumble of common middle america. Tough living and Robert some how came through always w a smile. The documentary shows the difficult side of living - things that we don't really see in most documentaries - especially when Robert Crumb is so famous now. He just had a show in the museum of Paris! And, many visitors, they read comics on the wall! and some panels are fully translated into french. Great work and bravo for the stamina and drive and force of maintaining a personal vision. The film mentions that he sold everything to move to the south of france. ? Why? Of course we all know that French people know how to enjoy life and take long holidays etc. But will there be new works with say, the French conditions? Lets wait and see.

His brothers, and brothers notebooks, from comics, to text, to scribbles without writing, pages and pages and pages - this is much greater art than the esthetic contemporary art of the 80s... it means his life is spilled here... not due to a conscious "designed" course of action. He just did it this way because that was his self expression. Now he goes into begging as a course of self discipline - like a job everyday for a few hours on the street. Bed of nail, passing a shoestring through his mouth and out the other end to clean and scrub the intestines... it seems like a sort of guru training. Must be very hard to live in a body with such a soul and wired in the brain in such a way. Just reminds me, sometimes people are put together in a way that you have to be careful - fragile in handling.

The Kite Runner 2*I liked the scenery, the content, and the balanced way of telling the story, the film crew was a large Chinese group... the sentiments shown is very Asian. An Asian film in essence.Max (an animation film with resine figurines, Swiss) 1*Fell asleep, graphics totally unattractive, story very old value, the sex roles of the characters are sooooooo ooooold and stale, I simply fell asleep.Peur(s) du noir (animation film) 3*Strong showLa Jeune Fille et les loups 2.5*good story well toldPromets moi 2.5*noisy music, in keeping w the directors usual style.Cortex 2*reminds me, how does it feel like to be in an old folks home? and be treated like a dependant? a fine film showing humiliation and helplessness of the aged... We must take care of our parents when they get old... you wouldnt want to be put into an old folks home.Enfin Veuve 1*empty silliness. bourgeoise distraction.La Fanfare 2.5*Asian Oriental feel, the star is snappy, sassy, very interesting.Lust Caution 3*hmmm. the script has some problems...La Graine et le mulet 4*charming, brave, authentic, kind, i feel closer to the North Afracan immigrants after seeing this movie. Human, warmth, and what belly dancing could means.

Inventions needed :

A computer display which has the capacity of the sun :sl is an extension of rl for me, growing longer fingers, and coming back, the air is sweeter. Only thing I dont like is having to look at a lcd screen - I know how people get such pale faces and panda eyes now... maybe we should invent a computer that is like the sun, gives us warmth and a golden glow?

DDC :: Guangdong -> Paris

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